Submitted by Allyson MacLean, Assistant
Professor, Department of Biology, University of Ottawa, Canada
It was shortly after 2 p.m., and I
kept checking the time, concerned about losing track of the day. My job that
afternoon was to host my department’s first ever virtual seminar in less than
an hour, and I was nervous about how things were going to proceed. Would the Internet
connection from my guest’s home be strong enough? Would the technology perform
flawlessly? And what exactly was the best way to moderate questions from an
unseen audience? At this early stage of the pandemic, the virtual seminar
series that would soon flourish had yet to be conceived, and rules governing
virtual etiquette were still being established. I kept feeling an urge to log
online and make sure everything was in order. And yet, instead I was reading Peppa
Pig to my 2-year-old, snuggling with her in my bed as she was settling down
for a nap.
I will always remember 2020 as the year in
which my roles as a mother to two young children and an assistant professor at
the University of Ottawa abruptly merged into one chaotic mess. To reconcile
the needs of caring for a 2- and a 4-year-old suddenly at home, with the
demands of a full-time teaching and research position, meant very early
mornings, careful coordination with my husband’s work schedule, and incredibly
long days. A colleague of mine, Marina Cvetkovska, expressed it best, “My
days feel like an endless boring Saturday with a hint of panic.”
My story was far from unique: most parents
were facing these same struggles. With a new era of Zoom meetings featuring
young children climbing onto the laps of colleagues and collaborators rapidly
emerging. I found myself asking the question “How can we all pull together to
help one another?” Over the course of a few late-night Zoom meetings between
myself, Mary Beth Mudgett (IS-MPMI president), Jeanne Harris (editor-in-chief,
MPMI), and Dennis Halterman (editor-in-chief, IS-MPMI
Interactions), the idea of creating an online forum to promote community
and connection during a period defined by self-isolation and social distancing
began to take shape.
The COVID-19 pandemic has wrought
unprecedented disruptions to both our personal and professional lives, changing
the ways in which we work, network, and even communicate with one another,
possibly forever. COVID-19 has also laid bare some of the societal inequities
in countries across the globe, and within the structures of our own scientific
community, disproportionately affecting early career researchers, for example,
as well as women and parents, all of whom are inherently more vulnerable to
disruptions in their career and home lives. Yet, the pandemic has also seen
scientists and researchers from all disciplines pull together to collaborate on
a scale never seen before—with online conferences about vaccine development
including virologists, immunologists, oncologists, veterinarians, and at least
one plant biologist. I continue to find hope in this.
Now is a time to connect with one another,
to strengthen our collaboration, to improve dialogue, and to develop a stronger
network that will see us emerge from this catastrophe as a community more
united than ever. IS-MPMIConnect is a new, virtual platform that will help us
do just that: promote interactions between members, offering support and
community to help us overcome the challenges this pandemic has imposed upon us
as researchers, teachers, and caregivers—all human beings with multifaceted,
complex lives that have been unexpectedly altered this past year.
IS-MPMIConnect was originally conceived as a means of fostering a network that
would connect those in need of research and teaching support with those able to
provide such help, yet this initiative quickly developed into so much more.
We offer IS-MPMIConnect as a venue for our
members to facilitate networking, collaboration, discussion, mentorship, and
inclusion, with a goal of strengthening our community in bad times and good. We
are presently developing a website to host this forum, and we welcome members
of our society who wish to participate in this to contact us at ismpmi.connect@gmail.com. We are also soliciting
feedback in the form of a survey
designed to gauge interest in a range of topics and activities we think will be
meaningful to our members—please, take a moment to offer
your feedback.
In closing, 2020 has ushered in a new “normal”
for everyone, and at all stages of our careers; IS-MPMIConnect will help us to
shape the direction this new path takes within our society.
